Reboot
by TheUltimatePsychoFanGirl
Summary: After all worlds fall to their knees, an attempt to restore the universe falters, causing it to collapse upon itself. In a broken reality full of corruption and death, Luigi tasks himself to fix what's left before all hope is lost. Each episodic chapter brings him closer to discovering the truth behind his universe's decay into nothingness.
1. Reboot

**Hello, this is TheUltimatePsychoFanGirl, aka Psycho.**

 **This is my first fanfiction, and its essentially just an alternate ending for Super Paper Mario, a "Bad Ending" if you will.**

 **Please enjoy, or suffer, or both.**

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own the properties of Super Paper Mario or any of its original properties. Please support the original series and its creator, Nintendo.**

* * *

White. White and an infinite, flat plane. This was all that remained of the entire universe aside from a giant, deformed figure.

Said figure was presumed to be a twisted blend of at least two drastically different entities based on its rather extravagant appearance. The body was a tattered mess of purple and yellow cloth and a mangled white collar and the head was a jet black face wearing a torn green cap, its facial features were all the same shade of white as the plane. In place of limbs, the figure had black and white chains that attached to a pair of worn, brown shoes and a pair of dusty, white gloves.

This was the lone survivor of a universe-wide apocalypse, not that it mattered since it was the one that caused this apocalypse in hopes to create a new universe to rule. A universe ideal to its own beliefs that would bend to however the creature pleased. Although there was rubble here and there, the first step had been still been completed. Despite the task being halfway complete, the creature felt unsettled about replacing an entire universe that, for the most part, had been full of innocent lives. After all, one does not simply replace a life.

Further consideration about its own actions caused the creature great pain as it recalled the memories of its separate parts, one pure and good, the other cruel and malicious. The names, for whatever reason, couldn't be recalled, and yet the titles "Man in Green" and "The Dark One" rang like a bell in reference to its good and evil parts respectively. The Man in Green joined with three close allies to stop a broken man from permanently destroying all worlds using a sinister artifact, while the Dark One worked among the broken man's ranks to deceive him and infuse himself with the Man in Green and the artifact. That was how the creature came to be.

But where were their allies? The Dark One's co-workers likely perished in the destruction of all worlds; the Man in Green's friends on the other hand, oh yeah, it remembered now. It had not been gentle with the three "heroes" that they were referred to as. The red one was the Man in Green's brother, the other two were royals, one monstrous, the other fair, both wedded together to create the artifact that would destroy all worlds. The one could not find the strength to fight his brother and perished with a single hit, the fair one was barraged with so many magic blasts that her defenses were quickly shattered and she fell afterwards, and the monster was a rough fighter until he was crushed by the weight of the creature's foot. The image, the terrible memory of the heroes' lifeless bodies was too much. It remembered the broken man and his lover, who had been reborn as a companion to the heroes, the two of them died reunited at long last. It thought of the innocents, the young, and the helpless who were erased. It was all too much to bear.

Indeed, one could not simply replace a life, one especially could not replace every single life that was destroyed in a apocalypse.

What was all this liquid running from its body? It certainly wasn't blood because it could not bleed. It lacked the need for blood to pump through its body; it was practically a dead creature from the moment it formed.

So what was the liquid? Tears. It was upset. It was empty. It was scared. It was alone. It had the power to fix all these problems and yet it couldn't do it, it would be to heartless and cruel. It would be too much like the Dark One. But this wasn't just the thoughts of itself or the Man in Green, it was the Dark One as well. Every part of it was unhappy and it didn't know what to do.

"This shouldn't have happened", the creature's voice was able to mutter. It was a voice that sounded exactly like two people speaking at once, more specifically, two people that were at a huge fault for their mistakes. "They should have won, they were supposed to win." It continued to mumble to itself over and over again. More tears swelled in its eyes. It tried to curl into a fetal position to hold itself but was too emotionally broken to think about its movements, so it continued to stay in the same spot it had been for...how long has it been? It couldn't remember, more tears swelled up. There had to be a way to fix this.

Eventually, it had an idea. The tears stopped, the painful memories ceased, the mind cleared itself of bad thoughts. It could rebuild the universe it destroyed, it could bring back everyone, it could give the universe a second chance to save itself, but only if everything was just right. The margins of failure were huge, and it only had the memories of the Man in Green and The Dark One to go by for reference on the old universe, and both beings, should they be reborn, would have no memory of the old universe, nobody would, hopefully. It was worth a shot.

It was unanimous, the plan would be executed. The creature held in its large gloves a black, shadowy heart. It was huge in comparison to a normal heart, but was small compared to the creature's hand. The heart shaped artifact that was used to destroy all worlds, the Chaos Heart, would be used to recreate the universe it erased. The creature used every last ounce of its power to charge the artifact until it was almost drained and allowed the power of the Chaos Heart to be released.

White. White and an infinite, flat plane were all the creature saw before it grew to weak to hold itself together. Hopefully, it would be stopped this time.

* * *

 **So how was that? I hope it was good, or at least decent.**

 **Also, with the addition of author's notes, I have a announcement to make: I will be continuing this story. Let's just say I'm gonna have to add this fic to the "horror" category because, oh boy, it's gonna get kinda freaky when I upload the next chapter in, like, idk three months or something. Writing is hard, and so is doing when you've got school, so it might take a while to update both this and my upcoming fanfiction "Super Paper Swap".**

 **This story will contain post-apocalyptic scenarios, mutated bodies, possibly mental illness, probably gore, and zombies, so if any of these things are gonna be a bother then you might wanna find another fanfiction to read.**

 **If you want to know what to expect ahead of time, why not drop on over to the official blog "paper-mario-reboot", you might or might not regret it.**

 **And with that, Adios.**


	2. Startup

**Hey look an update!**

 **It's October and people are celebrating being terrified, so to kickstart the slow spiral into possible terrors, I decided to post a chapter.**

 **For those of you that followed when this was first posted, no you're eyes are not deceiving you, this is now a horror fic. The horror aspects will probably suck like all Hell, but we'll get there in due time.**

 **And now the disclaimer,**

 **I do not own any of the characters, locations, etc that may appear. These concepts are owned by Nintendo. Please support the official release of the Mario series and other franchises they posses.**

* * *

Everyone remembered the first day of the apocalypse; it had started as a completely normal day. The shift into chaos had happened so suddenly, it had been overwhelming for everybody. The sky tore itself apart, all light vanished, and the ground violently opened into endless crevices. The discord was in every corner of the universe as entire worlds, entire dimensions collided into one another, either merging together as one, or erasing themselves from recoil.

Then, as quickly as it had started, it had stopped. The surviving worlds were in ruins, forced to rebuild from the ground up as all the skies were covered in a sheet of darkness. Everything grew colder and crops refused to grow. Many thought it couldn't get any worse, but it did.

As if by some divine punishment, the deceased awoke from slumber in the form of grotesque abominations, and a plague of madness spread with them.

The mentally ill were the first to fall; within the first day alone, the inhabitants of every asylum and hospital underwent a horrible transformation. Their thoughts became twisted, animalistic, more aggressive and gradually their bodies morphed and mutated until they were unrecognizable from what they once were. They broke loose from their confinements and proceeded to maim and slaughter everything in sight, causing the already immense army of eldritch abominations and walking corpses to grow with each new death.

Slowly but surely, the mutating malediction, soon referred to as "corruption", began to affect almost every single person alive, although much slower then that of the patient zeroes; the Corruption's origins were unknown and seemed to attach to people at random, even the most isolated of individuals were succumbing to the corruption until the number of corrupted beings greatly outnumbered those that were still healthy in a survival of the fittest.

This was the reality of things now, no magical prophecy to fix everything, no glimmers of hope, just a struggle to survive until one's inevitable demise.

* * *

"Another lovely day in Hell." Mario grunted to himself as he woke up from slumber. His once cheerful smile and bright clothes had become increasingly duller as time passed by; the top half of his overalls ripped off along with the sleeves of his shirt, and his quirky responses to everyday occurrences watered down into sarcasm. He turned his head to the side of the room where his dear younger brother, Luigi, was resting, certainly more peaceful than he had been. Ever since the first breakout of corrupted beasts, Mario had insisted his easily-frighten twin stay inside their house, safe from danger and relatively isolated from the rest of The Wasteland while he tried to find the source of the problem. From his explorations, he discovered that several worlds had collided with the Mushroom Kingdom and its neighboring countries and was quickly introduced to the hostile species of these worlds.

He couldn't remember how long he'd been searching, but it had at least been several months according to the calendar they stopped using when the days no longer aligned properly; using the clock to tell the time became obsolete when it inevitably died, and since the sky was always covered in the same dark clouds, they couldn't even use the sun to track the time. So essentially, time had little to no meaning now that there was no way to track it. It was probably better that way.

Mario clutched the hammer beneath his bed and rose to a sitting position on the worn mattress. He got off the bed with a soft "thud" and sluggishly approached the front door, barricaded by a number of objects in case the lock failed. Luigi was slightly startled by the clatter of things that were removed from the barricade so his brother could leave.

"Morning bro." Luigi said, briefly drawing Mario's attention away from the door. The brothers looked at each other eye-to-eye before the older of the two went back to his work. Mario exited the house and closed the door behind himself while his little brother bid him a nervous farewell, never daring to peek outside. Luigi leap from his bed onto the hardwood floor soon after and did his self-administered chores to pass the time until his red-clad sibling returned; visiting neighbors was out of question, as was any other activity that had to be done outside, so he did whatever he could to not die from boredom.

He wasn't afraid to leave initially, he helped Mario with rescuing people that were trapped or injured, but then one of the toads they were rescuing became aggressive without reason, prompting Luigi to panic and Mario to retaliate. They burned the body when news spread about the dead coming up from their graves. After that he refused to leave the house in fear of another attack, and it stayed like that until present day. "It's probably better like this." Luigi thought to himself. He grabbed a pair of torn overalls from Mario's side of the room and a sewing kit, returned to his side, and tried to repair the many rips and tears the had accumulated, a task that would keep him preoccupied for a solid amount of time.

* * *

Several hours passed, Luigi was now checking on a small cluster of pots in one corner of the house. The pots housed minuscule numbers of young mushrooms, small fruit, and other plants for consumption, growing under a sun-lamp at its lowest brightness; while the tiny amount of "sunlight" did make growing the plants harder, it certainly seemed to keep the lamp's batteries alive for a longer period of time. He had to be careful to give each plant just enough water to stay alive while still having enough to drink for himself and Mario.

Something slammed into the front door, Luigi turned, startled by the noise. He grabbed the hammer underneath his bed and snuck towards the door, anticipating an attack from some sort of corrupted monstrosity. A gush of frigidness swept into the room as the door violently swung opened from the other side. The young plumber held up his weapon in defense and braced for the oncoming attack of an unnamed terror.

* * *

 **FOOLS! Now you have to wait for another month for an update (probably).**

 **Jokes aside, I hope you enjoyed what you've seen.**

 **Remember, reviews will help me A LOT, even something as tiny as a grammatical error or constructive criticism will improve my writing for future readers!**

 **And with that, Adios.**


	3. Alert

**Surprise! I got the chapter done early!**

 **I'll be responding to reviews up here as well, assuming I don't have news. All questions are accepted, especially one pertaining to the story's canon.**

 **Agent66: Ok, so you brought up some pretty good questions, both of which I'm happy to answer since I may never get these explained in the actual story(unless I get lucky). Yes, Super Dimentio, aka the combined entities of Dimentio and Luigi, did in fact reboot the universe. What I didn't mention is that the reboot worked up to a certain point where the reboot had a sort of error. This "error", in terms of a timeline, happened a few short weeks prior to when the first Paper Mario would have begun. As such, the entities themselves were placed back into the loop as the goal was to prevent "Super Dimentio" from destroying the universe and they are back in a time where the Chaos Heart, and by extension Super Dimentio, should not yet exist. Except, for some reason, the Chaos Heart does still exist, it is in a situation where it didn't previously exist before, and it wants to destroy, so it destroys, albeit with unexpected results. The Collisions are a result of the Error that caused an "alternate" end of the worlds where the worlds would slowly decay as opposed to being consumed.**

 **tl;dr- Super Dimentio reset the universe from scratch, history went exactly as it did before until the universe goes "screw it" and destroys itself prior to Paper Mario because the Chaos Heart is a jerk. Chaos Heart forces worlds to collide, now everything is dying, every is terrible.**

 **And now the Disclaimer**

 **I do not own Super Paper Mario or any other game of the Mario franchise. These games belong to Nintendo and should be acknowledged as their property. Please support the official release of these properties.**

* * *

He waited, nothing happened. Nothing attacked him. Nothing approached him. Slowly, he opened his eyes and immediately regretted doing so.

It was Mario, but something was terribly wrong. He was leaning on the frame of the door and breathing unevenly. The hand carrying his hammer was violently shaking while the other hand clutched the side of his head. His eyes, barely open enough to see, drifted to Luigi as he faintly whispered his brother's name, "Lu-i-gi". He collapsed on the floor.

Luigi examined his sibling for injuries, there were deep gashes in the chest and the side of the head Mario was holding was becoming drenched in blood, there wasn't near enough water to clean the wounds nor any bandaged to wrap around them. The little brother bolted to the opposite side of the house and grabbed a number of old rags and shirts, ripped them in strips, and tied them around the wounds to stop the bleeding. Then, with a good amount of his strength, he picked up his brother and held him over his back.

* * *

He ran, and ran, and ran. The emptiness of his stomach, the dryness in his throat, the weight on his back, they were nothing compared to the desperation to find help for his kin. He vaguely knew where he was going, the world around him was unrecognizable compared to when he'd last seen it. Where there had at least been small patches of pale green grass, there was only dust, the color that had struggled to linger was practically nonexistent, the mightiest of trees were decayed skeletons among a meadow of weeds and twigs.

He dashed through the ruins of what was once Toad Town, keeping an eye out for hostiles. Somewhere in the northwestern area, that's where he needed to go. He loosely followed the trail exiting that section of town, formerly known as Goomba Road, as he maneuvered through a series of shortcuts in the woods. Finally, he saw it, the entrance to the Goomba Village. A number of wooden fences with an untold number of nails and splinters jutting out, linked to a single gate.

They had found the Goomba Village by accident while scouting for survivors and were quickly kicked out by the family that lived there. The father seemed to be the head of the village, so all he had to do was ask him for help, seemed simple enough. The family was hostile, but Mario had said they were willing to assist with any medical needs. Luigi halted at the foot of the gate and knocked at it three times with his boot. He waited. He knocked again. He waited.

"Who is it?!" Cried out a gruff voice. The gate opened, revealing the voice's owner, a small, brown mushroom with stubby feet and a messy, black mustache. This was Goompapa, the head of the Goomba Village and loving father of two. He looked up to the green plumber, his thin eyebrows twitched as he spotted Mario on his sibling's back. The goomba stayed rooted to his spot and examined his patient from afar while Luigi explained his predicament. Two pairs of eyes, belonging to Goompapa's two children, appeared behind him.

He continued to scan Mario, he almost seemed willing to accept, but then his eyes stayed fixed in one place.

"No."

"What?" Confusion spread on Luigi's face.

"We don't need a corrupted freak in here, not after the three we've already had to put down."

Corrupted? Corrupted, corrupted, corrupted. The word ringed in his head; how was his brother-?

He followed Goompapa's line of sight...to his brother's right glove; it had been dangling from the side. What was wrong with his hand? The fingertips. The fingertips were slightly pointed and slight stained with red. The material of the glove's tips looked ready to tear from the point. He shifted his weight to free his right arm; he grabbed the glove, and pulled.

Claws. His brother's hands were becoming claws, they were mutated. It only takes a single mutation.

"He's a lost cause Green Man, might as well burn him before it's too late." Goompapa was looking back at Luigi's eyes. "We've already had to put down Mom, Dad, and the Innkeeper. I don't think the kids need to see another soul succumb to the madness."

"Hasn't anyone been trying to fix it? The corruption?"

"Not as far as I'm aware of, any that tried must've fallen to it themselves before they could do anything." The peering eyes looked sorrowfully at the brothers, knowing there was nothing they could do to change their father's mind.

"I should go now." Luigi whimpered in defeat. "Sorry to have bothered you."

He turned around and trudged back in the direction he came from, Goompapa watched for a minute before finally closing the gate.

* * *

"Luigi..." Mario groaned. They were halfway home when Mario was able to become semi-conscious. The bleeding had long since stopped by then, but the rags were soaked with the red fluids and needed to be changed or at least cleaned.

"Luigi," he said again, "you did what you could." Luigi said nothing; his mind was swarming with thoughts. What now? Where will they go? Would they just stay in the house forever?

"You should just leave me here, Luigi." Luigi halted. Did Mario really just say that? Was he really admitting defeat? Both parties remained silent the rest of the way there.

* * *

 **Sweet Grambi this took a while to write, and I was already partially done with this chapter when I posted the last one.**

 **Again, I appreciate any reviews and questions.**

 **Craving to see what's in store but can't wait for this dang story to update? Lucky for you, I also have a blog full of character concepts and ideas within this story just waiting to be used. I even take art requests! Just go to Tumblr and look for the blog "paper-mario-reboot", you can't miss it!**

 **And with that, Adios.**


	4. Drag

**Here we are again. This chapter was originally part of "Alert", but I shortened it because it was a _bit_ too long for my taste. Enjoy.**

 **Disclaimer,**

 **I do not own Super Paper Mario or any of its properties.**

* * *

It took some time, but they eventually returned to their lonely abode, the cold air outside had invaded through the open door, leaving the brothers in discomfort for a while.

Mario was lying in bed, the position would have been an annoyance if he had the will to care, but the knowledge of his unfortunate status seemingly drained what little amount of his former self was still intact. Why hadn't he noticed the effects sooner? The memory loss should have been his first sign of worry, he had just assumed the Wasteland was doing something to him; of coarse, he couldn't have been more right. After that came the excruciating pain in his eyes that never seemed to stop and the agonized feeling in his fingertips, both of which happened on and off. It wasn't until they happened simultaneously, and much more violently than before, that he realize something was definitely wrong. He trashed about as the burning in his eyes migrated into his brain and he clawed at his chest in hopes to ease the pain in his hands and the empty feeling trying to penetrate his heart. He was barely conscious during Luigi and Goompapa's conversation, but it was enough to learn what was wrong with him.

Luigi was checking his plants, picking out portions of the growth worthy to eat, and placing said portions in a carrying bag. The bag itself was special, being able to carry such a large quantity of items of many sizes and weights despite its fairly average size. Mario knew there was some kind of magic in the bag but had lost he possessed many travels ago trying to traverse the remains of Darkland, so Luigi was using his own bag.

"Mario," The little brother spoke, the first exchange they'd had had since the return home, "I'm going to heal you, and this world." He paused. "You'll come with me, won't you? We always worked better as a team." Luigi didn't quite know what convinced him this was the best option, his initial thought was that it was a sort of selfish desire to keep himself and the only person that truly cared for him alive and sane, but he knew all too well that really it was his kindhearted nature breaking free from its cocoon of fear and timidness to emerge as a spark heroic compulsion, a compulsion that seemed to come from the deepest part of his familial bloodline.

It was a long while before Mario declined his sibling's offer, "I can't Luigi." He felt obliged to defend himself, "I'm slipping away ever so gradually, eventually my deteriorating mindset will force me to kill without reason, chances are you'd be the first victim when that happens. I need to stay here, isolated from the world, for everyone's safety." He rose up to embrace his little brother whose face was glazed with sweat and tears. "It's better this way." He whispered, just enough to be heard.

The door locked behind Luigi when he left, the frigid air crawled through him like termites in the oldest of oak trees; from that point onward, he had one mission: Heal the world.

Granted, such a task would be incredibly difficult, he probably wouldn't survive the first hour alone, but if he could find a way to stop the corruption from consuming his brother, it was worth a shot. He strode along in the direction of Toad Town, silently hoping the stores still held something salvageable and that the store owners were willing to sell. He wasn't going to resort to stealing unless he became desperate.

It soon occurred to him that, while the trail to the town was intact, the area around it was vastly different from how it had been prior to the supposed end of days; the space outside of the normal trail looked like chucks of alien worlds had been stitched in place of the forests that usually surrounded either side, the "stitching" being spaces of ground that faded from one type of earth in one place to pure white and then to another type of earth in the next place. It could have been beautiful when the world was still healthy and full of color, but that was no longer the case; instead the land was dull, lifeless, and lacking in hue.

His eyes were drawn to a body of water to the left-hand side, the soil had a grid-like texture that was prominent in the water as well, almost like swimming pool. The thing that brought his attention was the splashing several feet into the pool; he immediate responded by running towards the water. Someone was drowning, he was sure of it. The violent movements lessened as he got closer, they were getting weak and unable to remain surfaced. He had to be quick.

He dropped his bag mid-run as he was inches away from the water. Everything was a blur as he swam in the murky depths. He heard movement, turned towards it, approached it. Every action felt like swimming in a thick oil. The water turned a purple hue as he went down. He hit something. No, someone? It almost looked like a person. He held them. Strange, they were rather light. Something tugged at his leg. A hand. A long white hand. Two of them. Five of them. They were trying to pull him down. He kicked. He swam up. He kick and he chocked as he felt the need to breath.

He surfaced. He breathed. He swam with his passenger now on his back. He breathed. He swam. He kicked. He beached. He breathed, again. He lived.

* * *

 **So what do you think?**

 **Hopefully you guys have noticed this by now, but when Luigi is stressed or scared the sentences get shorter and choppy to match the feeling of thinking under pressure.**

 **Anywho, Audios!**


	5. Trojan

**Aaaaaand we're back!**

 **I've got five chapters ready to be uploaded, including this one, so let's get excited!**

 **Also, I can't stress this enough, please point out my grammar mistakes or anything that doesn't seem to abide by the laws of the English language. Even with English as my first language, even I tend to get things wrong.**

 **DISCLAIMER- I don't own Super Paper Mario or any of its characters.**

* * *

She was a rather dainty thing, the girl he rescued; the fact he recognized it as a girl in the first place was astonishing since she was just an cream-colored upper body with three pairs of oval shaped wings. Her hair was held in a mostly tidy bun, but had grown enough for it to double as a ponytail, getting darker the closer it got to the end. Splotches of blood on her pale face and wings indicated that this girl, whoever she was, had been roughed up very recently.

The girl opened her eyes, confusion sweeping across her face as she scanned the area.

"Art thou the one that hast saved me?" She asked, quietly.

He nodded in response.

"I thank thee. I am Luvbi, a Nimbi from the Overthere. I must verily be in thy debt for rescuing me."

"I was only doing the right thing."

"Others willing to such art rare these days. Thou must be rewarded with utmost hospitality!" The girl insisted. She lifted herself from the ground, the gentle flapping of her wings allowing her to hover. "Thou must cometh this way, my home is quite safe."

Luigi knew better than to take advice from strangers, but complied regardless; after all, Luvbi was just a defenseless child, and an angel for that matter. She wouldn't hurt any one. She couldn't hurt anyone. She would become the meal of a hungry beast if she went on her own. Luigi decided it'd be best to make sure the poor girl wasn't hurt on her way home and followed her with his things in tow.

They walked along the boarder of the river they emerged from for a few miles. The grid-patterned earth faded into a white patch and transitioned into a darkish pastel green terrain that pulsated like a marsh and bubbled like a cloud on the cracked surface. Broken chunks of pristine marble pillars and faded maroon stalactites lay strewed every which way. The pillars were scattered in the open, as if they'd fallen from the heavens, while the stalactite pieces stayed in close proximity of tall rocky overhangs that guarded undisturbed stalagmites.

Luvbi led him to a particularly large overhang with undamaged pillars lining the parameter. The inside was decorated with furniture that either looked manufactured from angels or demons based on the conflicting designs of different pieces; Luigi noted the only source of light in the overhang: a single lit torch on the wall.

The little angel invited Luigi to a cream colored table with shadow colored stools tucked underneath, where she brought him something to drink.

"My parents were the rulers of the death worlds. They perished protecting me, so I'm alone now, salvaging what's left of their lands." Luvbi confessed as she poured her guest another refreshment. Her voice at normal volume was as angelic as one would expect. "If thou wanted, thou couldst liveth with me, we art both safe here."

Luigi had to consider her offer for a moment. He scratched his head in thought, surprised to find his hat missing from its normal perch. It must've drifted off when he was rescuing Luvbi. He sipped his drink in concentration while the girl drank from a stool across from him.

He decided it would be a good idea to at least use Luvbi's home as a base of operation for his search, which he realize he had not yet brought up. Explaining his plans of curing the corruption was somewhat gut-wrenching for Luigi, but Luvbi seemed to understand the direness of the situation enough to allow him temporary stays in her shelter.

A good thing she understood in quick time too, the conversation weighed his shoulders down with an air of hopelessness that made his hands tremble.

The little angel set up a place for the plumber to sleep immediately after making their arrangements, which Luigi decided to take comfort in not long after he took count of his supplies. The hassle from that day alone had made him quiet tired. He insisted on returning the blanket placed for him to Luvbi, despite the cold air that seeped from outside. She gladly took back the torn fabric from him and nestled herself in it, with the the addition of the blanket from her own bed of course. Luigi took from the girl's example and curled up into his makeshift bed, his bag as a pillow, and slept.

* * *

Then he awoke. It didn't feel like it'd been long, maybe two or three hours, but he felt the need to be alert.

He went into a crouch, bag in one hand, hammer in the other. It was too dark to see with the torch put out, probably from the wind outside. The chill he felt was blowing through his heart, not his flesh. Something was wrong. Terribly terribly wrong.

He could faintly make out Luvbi's bed on the other side of the room. If the laws of architecture could even define the stone shelter as a room. He groggily crawled to the girl.

He heard a tiny splash as he stepped in something. But the floor had been dry when they went to sleep earlier. Why was it wet? He stepped in more puddles. He was at the edge of her bed. Her breathing seemed staggered.

"Luvbi?" He shook her. She was cocooned inside the blankets. Her went to pull one off, it felt damp. He pulled it anyway.

It wasn't Luvbi. It was dark, but he could tell it wasn't Luvbi. I was another Nimbi, a male one. He wore a yellow and green tunic, stained by the blood evacuating the stab wounds in his chest. His eyes were filled with fear.

"Does a mercy kill really count as mercy if you're victim is still Pure?" He chocked out, and then he died.

A cold breath clasped onto Luigi's back.

"Only if I'm the one doing the killing." A familiar voice whispered.

Luigi ran for his life.

* * *

 **Looks like somebody isn't what they seem. Run you fools, RUN!**

 **Adios! See you guys next week!**


	6. Run

**And we're back!**

 **We got one review last week, so review time!**

 **Ems602- While there are things like the story description that require an update, I can assure you that Dimentio is a major character in this world. He's just taking a while to become a part of Luigi's journey.**

* * *

He should have known better than to trust her, the circumstances in which they met were far too convenient.

An angel falling out of the sky right as he passed by? She was an awfully lucky girl then to have had such a nice person nearby then.

He should have suspected something was suspicious, but why would he? He'd been inside a house while everything went to hell without him. His natural instinct was to assume someone was good until proven otherwise, and she had been nothing but good to him.

He really should have known better. Luigi kept having to tell himself that as he hid behind pillar after pillar. He hadn't even caught a glimpse of Luvbi when he fled. He knew better than to look back.

He ran without stopping once he left the hellish nightmare of the Ruined Afterworld, a suitable name for such a place, until he located his original path of travel. He couldn't possibly make way to his original destination while following the path, not with a maniac following him. He need to detour through the woods.

Transversing the heavily decayed foliage without knowledge of the potential hazards was foolish, but he'd need to take risks to survive in a world where even angels were out for his blood. He delved inside.

The flora was as wilted as he'd expected, the most dangerous thing he could find was the heavy amount of thorns that had grown on everything to protect what little remained.

He exited the forest into the decrepit Toad Town. A fungal creature with far too many legs and a dried upper half stared hungrily at Luigi. He was pretty sure it used to be a toad based upon his own assumption and the fact that the creature's body was infested with spots.

Luigi had to urge himself to not listen to the pleas of the starving creature that seemed preoccupied with both him and the hideous mass it was in the process of engulfing with its jagged mouth.

He had to maneuver around numerous buildings to avoid the hoards of hungry mutants wanting to devour him. The center of town was especially dangerous with the town wizard, Merlon, guarding it as his own territory in his deformed state as a tusked, bipedal creature with a bulb dangling from his head.

His lack of eyes did not stop him from felling intruders, such as a particularly famished and desperate toad, with incredible speed.

Inching away from such a creature would slow him down, but he couldn't simply run from it. Running would make noise, as would attempting to enter any nearby building, with the exception of the vacated Mushroom Castle. He could rest there until Luvbi lost his trail and escape through the back without making himself Merlon's next target.

Luigi carefully scaled the bordering wall into the castle lawn, long deprived of maintenance after the princess disappeared and left her kingdom in shambles. The front of the castle was infested with black ivy, but the front door was intact enough to go through.

The interior had certainly seen better days, but was thankfully lacking any form of life other than Luigi himself. He casually made his way to the castle's mostly untouched guest room and flopped onto the soft bed. The fact he woke up hours later without any sign of blood loss was a good enough indication that he was safe enough inside the castle walls to use it as a safe haven.

He'd nearly considered raiding for supplies, but decided against it in case someone else needed them more than him, and instead took his leave from the empty structure. The way the ground pulsated in the back of the castle suggested that it would be safer for him to return to the entrance, which he did.

Through the gate, he could see that Merlon had left his post with a trail of blood and Toad corpses leading towards the direction he intended to go. Surely he would have an easier time avoiding him on a trail then in a town. He followed the crimson puddles, squeamishly trying to avoid letting a single drop of the liquid touch his shoes, a task that became more difficult as the amount of blood lining the ground became more obvious.

The trail ended in an open plane that was circled by uprooted trees. In the dead center lied Merlon, collapsed, his insides spilled out from a gaping hole caused by his attacker: a large worm.

The worm's striped body oozed under the patches of colorful skin that peeled off near it dreadlock covered head. It turned to Luigi with a row of bloody canine teeth bared; its ugly maw formed a crooked smile and let out a stomach-churning chuckle as the slimy thing inched towards him. The sight of such large quantities of blood left the plumber paralyzed in shock and at the mercy of the creature before him.

"You're a new face." It lisped, snakelike. "I don't recognize your smell."

Luigi tried to grab the hammer in his bag. The worm snapped at his hand.

"Nu-uh-uh~" It taunted, "Let's not get too hasty. We've only just met. A pure guy like yourself must have quite a tale to tell."

"Pure?"

"Lacking in corruption, untainted by the plague around us, guiltless and without a single drop of blood on your hands. I'm sure those are good definitions for you to wrap you head around. Now tell me about yourself."

"I'm Luigi, I've been...hiding in my house since the corruption spread." He answered the creature with hesitation wavering in his voice.

"Luigi eh? I remember you now. You were that Mario guy's brother, weren't you?"

He nodded.

"Your a bit far from home aren't you?"

He nodded again.

"And your big tough brother isn't here to help you?"

He didn't move.

"Hehe, I think we both know the answer to that question."

"I just-" He fumbled, attempting to orchestrate a distraction. "I need-"

"Need what?"

"I need answers."

* * *

 **Just a heads up, next chapter is gonna be a bit shorter.**

 **Don't forget to leave a review if you can; it's stupid, I know, but they REALLY do help me in the long run. Even a call out on some bad grammar could go a long way.**

 **Anywho, Adios!**


	7. Bit

**Welcome back!**

 **As a said last week, this chapter is shorter than the other ones, but you'll probably understand why when you see the next chapter.**

 **Also I updated the description! So that's a thing I did.**

 **Review Time**

 **Ems602- I actually forgot about wigglers for this AU, this worm guy is actually Chuck Quizmo from the first Paper Mario, but I can understand the confusion. The scary part though is that he's only half corrupted, so he's going to take every opportunity to play around with Luigi.**

 **As for Luvbi, let's just say the Pure Hearts did not handle the premature End of All Worlds, so their ability to manifest as love is incredibly weak and tantamount to what happened to the Pure Heart in Sammers Kingdom after it was destroyed in canon.**

 **And I'm glad your excited for more!**

 ***insert Disclaimer here***

* * *

"What kind of answers could you possibly need from the likes of me?"

Luigi didn't reply. He wasn't really lying about needing answers, he had no idea what to expect from a world he'd isolated himself from for so long. He should've talked to Mario beforehand so he'd know what to expect.

"Whatever. I'll just assume, little 'ol Mario couldn't be bothered to tell you anything and just lend my infinite knowledge unto you...for a price of course." He sniffed, grimacing afterwards with disgust. "Preferably something edible."

"But you already have food." Luigi said, pointing to the mass of organs and blood.

"Listen buddy, I'm pretty much always starving, just do 'ol Quizmo a favor and tough it out. You'll last longer without food than I will anyhow, so spit out what you need to know."

Luigi complied with Quizmo, although he couldn't help but feel intimidated as he asked away.

"What happen to the geography?"

"The End of Days rearranged so much stuff, I'm pretty sure sure it all got mixed up."

"Is Bowser's Castle still at its normal place?"

"What kind of idiot question-? Of course it is! Wouldn't suggest going there though, what business do you have with a dead monarchy anyhow?"

Luigi didn't answer.

"Whatever, next question!"

"Has there been any word on curing the corruption?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. I don't tolerate the virtue of sharing enough to bother finding that out."

"How'd you kill Merlon?"

"I just convinced those toads to ambush him. Their spots have paralyzing toxins in them now, just takes a single touch to immobilize something. All I had to do watch them nip at him until he fled off into here to lick his wounds. Only took a well-aimed shot for 'ol Chuck Quizmo to snatch himself a free meal."

"Are you corrupted?"

"I sure as Hell ain't pure, but I ain't a full blown corrupted either. It's more of a...transition."

He was running out of questions rather quickly.

"Well?"

"How long has it been?"

"Since The End of Days? Beats me."

He couldn't think of anything else.

"Looks like you've run outta things to ask pal." He smiled. "Now about my compensation..."

Luigi reached for his bag.

"I don't eat any of that plant crap by the way."

He paused. He only had mushrooms to offer.

"I somewhat lost my appetite for that stuff long ago, just tastes like dirt to me now. What I want is something with a little more...meat in it. Something fresh."

Luigi tried to flee, but tripped. Quizmo's tail wrapped around his leg and dragged the plumber to his location.

"Don't worry pal, I'm sure nobody will miss your sorry face other than your brother, which is fine by me. He'll have to go searching for your corpse eventually."

The sound of large, but brisk footsteps reached Luigi's ears. Quizmo's tail loosened, as if frighten by the sound.

"You were stalling me! You knew about the damn bird didn't you?! You dirty-" Quizmo was interrupted by an ear-bleeding shriek. A tall, buzzard-like creature with bone-thin legs emerged from the woods. The front and the back of the head both harbored a beak, one long, one short. The wings were far too small and underused to lift the beast into the air but still managed to provide as intimidating.

A pair of bloodshot eyes led themselves to plumber and his invertebrate capturer. It shrieked again, this time louder. Luigi was too frightened to consider pulling out the hammer in his possession.

"You led Buzzar straight to us you idiot!" Quizmo ranted, drawing the bird closer to them.

Buzzar twisted its neck, the long beak now facing the front, and snapped at its two morsels.

Quizmo froze up, releasing his prisoner. Luigi rolled out of the way without a scratch on him. The same could not be said for Quizmo, who flailed inside the birds grasp.

It lifted its head and opened its mouth, dropping the worm into its gullet.

Luigi fled behind a toppled tree. The buzzard made a beeline for the remains of Merlon, shooing and picking off a mass of small brown corrupted that had conglomerated in Quizmo's absence.

The mighty bird of prey gouged down into the carcass, cuing Luigi that now was an ideal time to return to his mission as swiftly as his feet could carry him.

* * *

 **And that's the chapter!**

 **Next week we'll actually start a story arc, oooo!**

 **Joking aside, as usual, I do thank everyone that reads this.**

 **And please, if you could, be sure to leave a review. It helps me figure out how I can improve my writing and encourages me to believe I'm not just yelling at an empty void.**

 **Anyway, Adios!**


	8. Byte

**Welcome back to another exiting chapter!**

 **I have no updates today so I'll go ahead with the reviews.**

 **Opal- Opal. My friend. My gal. If you're already worried about Luigi this early on, then hoo boy.**

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own Super Paper Mario or any other game in its respected series.**

* * *

He stopped running when the trail, which should have still led to Bowser's Castle, brought him to a town.

The ground was cracked tile, desperately needing to be replaced. The town itself was incredibly linear, perfect rows of abandoned buildings and nonfunctional elevators lined both sides of the road like a mirror image. Holes covered the ground and debris from what was probably a ceiling fell without warning. The town overall was a mess.

The sound of growling emitted from a shop he approached, the walls of the building rattled as he passed by and a mass of geometric shapes clawed at the barricaded door. Though startled, Luigi continued his steady pace in belief that the creature inside could not break free.

A cloaked head peeked out from the house ahead of him, with a pair of sullen eyes looking in his direction. Following the head outside of the house was the figure of an old man with a long, grey beard. The rest of his body was covered in a blue cloak, fading with age. The man stepped forward in Luigi's direction, scanning his surroundings with weary suspicion, and signaling for him to come near.

Luigi put his faith in the elder, who invited him inside the small blue house he lived in. The inside of the house was lined with broken shelves and a pile of torn books in one corner; shards of glass were swept in another corner. A small table with a little white book, seemingly untouched by time, sat in the back of the house.

The elder plucked the book from its perch and skimmed through the pages . His eyes jumped between Luigi and a certain page in the book multiple times before sighing in apparent relief.

"So my assumptions were correct." The man said to himself. "Who are you, Man in Green?"

"My name is Luigi." He replied, unsure if the man was actually talking to him and getting rather annoyed by how much he had to introduce himself in a short amount of time.

"Luigi...a name meaning 'renowned fighter'. Yes, I believe your arrival here is no coincidence, for a man in you image is mentioned in the book I hold in my hands, the Light Prognosticus."

"I'm pretty sure there'd be at least one other person that matches a description in a random book." Luigi insisted to the elder. As great as it felt to him that someone thought he was important, he felt a necessity to prove otherwise out of modesty.

"This is no ordinary book though Luigi, The Light Prognosticus is a tomb written for the purpose of stopping the end of all worlds, or at least is was before...that happened. Nonetheless, I feel deep within my inner being that you are a prophesied hero that still holds potential to undo the calamity that was brought upon us."

This statement surprised Luigi. A book of future events? One that declared him of all people a hero? One that was almost on-point with his plans to stop the corruption? Perhaps it wouldn't be so farfetched to believe that there was a divine destiny in his name after all.

"I suppose I need to do something for you then, sir?"

"Oh, please, just call me Merlon."

Another Merlon? Luigi supposed it couldn't be helped, names like Merlon, Merlee, and Merluvlee were all common among the Shaman people in his home, and this Merlon looked enough like a shaman to count as one.

Merlon placed the book back onto its sacred pedestal, staring at it longingly, as if he'd never see it again. He reached into his cloak and pulled out a heart-shaped stone about the size of Luigi's head. He held the stone up to his chest and then outward to Luigi.

"This Pure Heart was a sacred relic passed down by my ancestors from the day this town of Flipside was constructed. It has seen better days, but in the end I remain its protector. It's power should lead you to its seven siblings, but what you should do once they are in your possession is up to you."

"Won't you have time to determine their use?"

"I'm afraid I won't. That heart's power has protected me from the plight outside these walls for so long, I fear that I may lose myself the second I let go. I wager that collecting even a few more than the one could possibly reverse the ill effects of corruption."

"Why are you trusting me with this responsibility?"

"In this era of darkness, one must take risks. I put my faith in you because I see a beacon of hope in your eyes." He looked back to the white book on the table. "Take the Light Prognosticus with you first. It is the most cherished book in this house, and I'd never forgive myself if I allowed it to be destroyed by my hands. Perhaps you can use it to find the three other heroes mentioned inside."

Luigi took the book, the text inside was by all means foreign to him, but he felt like he could understand the words despite never seeing the language before in his life. He delicately placed the book into his bag before returning to Merlon.

"Hero," Merlon started, "bathed in the light long lost to all worlds, do you take this Pure Heart under your possession?"

"Yes."

"Then do so now. And when you do, run from this place and do not return, for I may not be myself the next time we meet."

Luigi nodded his head and took the stone from Merlon.

The elder's eyes dimmed as Luigi approached the door, facing his direction. A bloodshot eye opened up inside of his beard as an audible grow rumbled from vocal cords.

Luigi dashed from his spot, violently slamming the door behind himself as he left. The sound of shattering glass blasted from the store at the town's entrance as the building's resident made a beeline for the man in green himself.

His legs naturally carried him to the direction of his original destination towards the end of town, the creature from the shop having ceased its chase upon being distracted by Merlon's aggravated and unfamiliar growling inside the confines of his personal prison.

His desire to escape danger was so strong that he was blind to his surroundings, running only in accordance to his instincts of fight or flight.

He felt himself ram against something and his legs gave out from the impact.

"Don't hurt me!" He cried out, embracing for a hostile encounter.

* * *

 **Luigi has been entrusted with a Pure Heart. Will its light guide him to a cure for the corruption? Who the heck did he run into? Tune in next week for the last chapter of this month before I (hopefully) switch back to updates on Super Paper Swap!**

 **As always, Adios!**


	9. Application

**Welcome come to the last update for this month! This is probably the shortest chapter in the entire story, which is not something I'm proud of, but it does introduce a character that will be coming back quite a lot.**

 **REVIEW TIME!**

 **Ems602- My apologies that your chapter 7 review was eaten by the void, lets hope it doesn't happen again. As for Mr.L, I also forgot to talk about him because he's tricky to explain. He's in the story, but not as you'd expect him to be. And yeah, Merlon made a desperate sacrifice for a desperate time, lets hope it was worth it.**

 **EAParakeet- I'm glad you like the story!**

 **DISCLAIMER: Super Paper Mario is not my property, but rather the property of Nintendo. Please support its official release.**

* * *

"Don't hurt me!" Luigi cried out. A voice in front of him made the same plea in unison to his own, but it sounded forced and like it had been rehearsed many times before. He opened his eyes to a jester-like figure feigning weakness. The figure's body language was enough to call out their charade, which quickly melted off when they observed the plumber and his lack of aggression.

The crouching figure in their faded and scuffed up half-white, half-black mask looked at Luigi with disgust as they levitated themself into a standing position, brushing off their off-plumb poncho of near-pastel yellow and purple while mumbling to no one in particular in a almost masculine tone.

"Aren't you going to attack me?" Luigi finally asked, scooping up the Pure Heart from the ground and sliding it into his bag.

"Of course not. I only have quarrels with those that are in my way, which you are not." The torn hat on the jester's head swayed in tune to its owner's speech, moving up and down with the tone he gave.

"Do you at least want my name then?"

"There's no need for that, I already know who you are, Luigi."

"How?" He tensed up.

The stranger stared at Luigi with his empty eyes as a small grin lifted on the mask's face. Instead of answering, he hummed to himself in amusement.

"Can I at least get your name then?"

"Dimentio, Master of Dimensions. Formerly the Pleaser of Crowds as well before, well, the obvious."

So his name was Dimentio? A strange name. A familiar name too; Luigi couldn't recall where he'd heard it from. Maybe it was from a book somewhere.

"I couldn't help but notice the stone you carry. It's Pure Heart, is it not?" Dimentio stated.

"What do you know about them?"

"I know that they're all conveniently spread across different sections of The Wasteland."

"The what?"

"This large mish-mash of worlds you living on, we call it The Wasteland now."

That was news to him. He'd keep that mind, just in case.

"I also know your wasting your time if you plan to find that Heart's other parts. It's a dead artifact Luigi, nothing but a giant magnet for disappointment."

"You don't know that."

"Pardon?"

"I was mentioned in the Light Prognosticus' passages, I was destined to guide this Heart."

Dimentio scoffed. "You got that Heart from Merlon didn't you? I told that fool he'd waste his time waiting for someone. but he INSISTED that a hero would appear. He's probably corrupted now, that Heart was the only thing keeping him safe and he's given it to you." He was obviously trying to get a ride off of him.

"I have to go." Luigi declared as he picked himself up from the ground.

"Already? I suppose there's no point in talking to a brick wall like yourself. Go on then, go and complete your suicide march, I won't stop you."

He trudged past Dimentio, who grabbed the neck of his shirt before leaving.

"If I could make one recommendation though, I'd suggest you get use to getting your hands dirty sooner rather than later. Having to murder in cold blood due to pressure is a lot more traumatizing then doing it out of instinct, and it'll only become instinct if you start early on." He let go of Luigi's shirt. "Ciao, for now Man in Green. I'm certain we'll meet again."

Luigi did not respond.

* * *

 **Huge apologies again for the short chapter, but hey, we have Dimentio now.**

 **Anywho, expect some updates of Super Paper Swap next month, or the month after depending on if I get those chapters finished in time.**

 **And as usual, Adios.**


	10. Webmaster

**Hey look an update! I decided to get some chapters done for the Halloween season.**

 **This is another short chapter, but it's got a lot of body horror to make up for it. Anyways, Reviews! Lots of 'em!**

 **Ems602 (aka Dimentio)-There will be Dimentio. Lots of Dimentio, just not right now. I can't go into detail what you will do but it's gonna be kinda nuts.**

 **Opal-Fear not friendo, Dimentio has no need to hurt the Wege.**

 **NormanWhitesmith-Glad to know I'm doing a decent job at writing this story. I've never actually read a horror story before but I'll be damned if I don't try. Also thanks for noticing that "Ciao" was spelled wrong. Auto-correct is a bitch.**

 **Luigified531-Yeah it's Ciao. Blame autocorrect. Peach won't show up for a while, but you'll see why.**

 **Space Dimentio-Responding to all your reviews would be kinda nuts, but I appreciate every single one of them.**

 **DISCLAIMER: Paper Mario is owned by Nintendo.**

* * *

Despite the obstacles and near-death experiences, Luigi had eventually found Bowser's Castle. He remembered when Mario had left him at home the first time after That Day, his sibling returned to him after only a couple hours, telling him in great detail about everybody's whereabouts; he talked very briefly about Bowser refusing to help with any efforts because his disdain towards Mario had been thicker than his concern for his minions and children. After Peach left the kingdom in search for outside help and never returned, the king had grown reserved and mournful; Luigi could only hope the once proud king would be willing to help him when the world seemed to be at it's worst.

Stepping towards the fortress, Luigi felt a warmth from outside the path. The lava of the old Darkland, which was once considered irritable, was now comforting and incredibly nostalgic when compared to how cold the rest of the world had become. If not for its tendency to melt off skin, Luigi would have considered swimming inside the molten liquid on his way into the castle.

The interior of Bowser's Castle was devoid of life everywhere Luigi looked; not even the King's children, both by blood and not, seemed to reveal themselves, which made things all the more unsettling. He delved deeper and deeper into the castle with anxiety welling up. Luigi began to ponder if Bowser had left long ago and that he was somewhere else in the world, but the sound of the koopa's heavy breathing ahead indicated otherwise; he ran to the end of the hallway to the furthest room of the castle, where a horrible sight towered over him.

The Goliath-sized form of the former king glared at the scrawny man. A hole in the ceiling dropped a seemingly endless supply of lava into a bottomless pit, lighting the room enough to show that Bowser had been suffering from corruption for a long time. He had been leaning his head into the lava waterfall to let the liquid melt away the scales and flesh down into burnt bones. Large chunks of untouched organic mass revealed the scales had been becoming much sharper and rougher, the horns more bull-like, and the spikes more jagged.

In spite of his condition, the koopa king's eyes were still familiar and still recognized his former foe. Looking at Bowser in the eyes was painful, there was a clear split between a corrupted face and a face melted down to the skull. Luigi was pretty sure something was oozing from the empty socket of the melted half in an unnatural shade of something.

"I want it to end..." Bowser's gravely voice whimpered, almost unrecognizable as comprehensive speech from a combination of corruption and possible heat-stroke.

Luigi couldn't speak. A once proud creature, his brother's oldest foe, turned into something so pitiful hurt him in a way. He took one of the beast's claws and held it to get a point across, hoping the king would understand what he planned to do. Bowser pulled away as he clutched his head, fearing that his mind was ready to slip away.

"Just go...I fear death too much to end it..." Bowser said, "I fear for my children...and for her..."

Luigi knew the king had two things in life he cared for most, not knowing where one went meant he had to protect what was left. Judging by the micelle of spiked shells that squelched behind the king, he desperately wanted to preserve what could have been a happy family. Eight puddy-like heads and many arms sprawled out of the micelle's bottom through a large orifice with a similar hole on the top protruding eight tails. The amalgam gurgled incomprehensibly as it's father held it back from harming the frail man.

Before taking leave, Luigi was given a simple request: "Promise me I won't die like this."

* * *

 **That concludes this chapter. I plan to have eight more coming up before I go back to work on Swap, but that might change depending on how school goes.**


	11. Worm

**Last few paragraphs of this chapter are kinda gory and the first half will contain body horror. It's kinda expected at this point.**

 **Reviews**

 **Space Dimentio-I do not joke about body horror.**

 **NormanWhitesmith-I'm glad you're liking the plot, I have a very narrow outline of it on my phone at all times and the actual details just kinda materialize.**

 **Guest-I'll keep that in mind when I get stuck.**

 **GreenCAT the second- I only have one response for your :'( , and it's :).**

 **DISCLAIMER: Nintendo owns the right to Mario and anything associated with him.**

* * *

Forcing himself to leave Darkland's remains was difficult, but Luigi knew that things would get even worse if he didn't act, such was the case with his route to Toad Town; the Pure Heart, after being removed from Luigi's bag, had begun to tug slightly in a certain direction. The direction in question was towards Toad Town, but the man in green felt it best to maneuver through the barrens in attempt to go avoid Flipside and the problems that came with seemingly all forms of civilization housing monsters.

The barren were infested as well, but it was mostly the filth-colored corrupted that he began to assume were goombas. They were just stalks that crawled around on root-like limbs at this point. Their eyes were either blank, needle-infested, or so inflated by spores and puss that they were ready to burst, with each variation having its problems. The blank-eyed were simply the hardest to knock away, while the needle-eyed were particularly strong and had thorns in their roots; the spore-eyed levitated in a particularly intimidating manner as the bones of once feathery wings clattered and swayed in the wind.

All the corrupted goombas traveled in groups that rarely contained more than one variant. The forests at least were dense with dying foliage; the barrens, though more navigable, were filled with foes that would eventually reanimate, making any and all fights a waste of precious health. While seeing to it that he should avoid fighting altogether, Luigi began to notice the goombas heading towards his direction, but not directly towards him. Fearing for the worst, Luigi prepared his hammer as he got closer to the conglomeration of corrupted fungi.

Near the foot of a steep cliff, the vulture-like beast from before lay before him in agony, snapping at anything that got near. The bird seemed to recognize his scent as it kicked away the tiny foes to rise and charge him. Such a mighty bird of prey was expected to be clever as it pecked and scratched the plumber, memorizing his own attacks to dodge in time. Each consecutive seemed to bring Buzzar increasing worse internal pain until it's stomach tore open from the inside; erupting from the guts of the avian was a familiar worm but in a much more grotesque state. No longer was Quizmo a sensible individual, in his place was a hideous parasite with a hook-filled mouth that split four ways. The eyeless spawn of Hell was somehow even larger that the host that had previously eaten him and took no time to engulf it's former predator and all the corrupted nearby in large gulps. Tendrils inside it's mouth pulled in nearby food while similar ones projected from around the neck like a lion's mane.

With very little food left to eat, Quizmo quickly noticed it's runaway prey. Luigi, though mortified and queasy, stood his ground this time. The worm lunged at him, it's maw wide open, while Luigi dodged and swatting away the beast's tendrils with his hammer. One tendril avoided the weapon and wrapped around one of Luigi's leg; the plumber retaliated by stomping on the tongue. A blood-curdling screech emitted from the worm. It attempted to pull away, but Luigi continued to nail the tendril down with his foot, making Quizmo struggle more to pull away. Luigi lifted his foot. The potential energy of the worm's struggle backfired from the release as it pulled itself onto the wall of the cliff. It writhed in agony before changing tactics and burying itself underground.

Quizmo surfaced underneath the plumber to snap him up, but was not fast enough as its prey noticed the shifty movement of the ground. The worm continued to dig underground and resurface, missing each consecutive time due to the contrasting speeds of both man and worm. The smaller of the two fighters was growing tired and knew that slowing down would make him vulnerable. He huffed in exhaustion. The realization that he could die right now disrupted the smooth rhythm of his breathing. His air intake increased and his hands shook. His heart beat faster with the fear of death clouding his judgement.

He didn't notice Quizmo burrowing under him again and failed to react in time. The launches him into the air and opened its maw wide. One of the tongues wrapped around Luigi's neck, wringing it. Luigi swung his hammer blindly. He prayed to hit something. He prayed for survival. He prayed for something. Anything. Anybody.

He struck something. His hammer was lodged onto it. He pulled the hammer. His vision blurred. He pulled more. Everything was darker. He pulled. It got darker. He pulled. Almost black. Once more, he pulled. The hammer dislodged itself. He was falling, his neck released. There was a screech. He swung his hammer once again, his vision still blurred. Another screech.

Pain! Luigi moaned on the hard ground. He shakily pushed himself to get up. He saw Quizmo flailing with red gashes on the side of its face. A black liquid spilled from its mouth, as did the gashes. Quizmo fled as it bled out a trail of the grossly dark blood.

Luigi examined hammer. It was coated in the black substance as many hook-like teeth were embedded into one of the hammer's business ends; gum tissue was still attached to some of the teeth. He threw the hammer in disgust as it dawned on him where the teeth came from and felt ready to vomit as a result. Steadying his stomach, Luigi picked up the disgusting weapon to return it to his belt. As vile as the hammer was now, it was still a weapon, and a more powerful one too with the sharp teeth embedded onto it.

Expecting lesser corrupted to draw near Quizmo's trail of blood, Luigi pulled out the Pure Heart to march towards the direction of its sibling. He silently prayed for sanctuary as he moved farther and farther away from the battlefield behind him.

* * *

 **The next chapter is gonna be suspenseful and may be unnerving for those with arachnophobia. Please be weary.**


	12. Bug

**This chapter is late because of school, but I'll try my best to make up for that. Also warning** **to anybody that doesn't like spiders or blood.** **Time for reviews!**

 **Magifoofa-Mimi might or might not be in this chapter depending on if you consider the corrupted form of a character the same as that the original character.**

 **Space Dimentio-I promise you that crying in a ditch is exactly what Luigu wants to do right now, but he can't do it _right now._ He'll get to it when he's not at risk of getting killed.**

 **Guest-You can pretty much expect this story to get gross at this rate. Blood is pretty much a necessity for every chapter.**

 **Opal-Like I told the guest, expect many future chapters to get disgusting. I'd recommend not eating before reading this story.**

 **DISCLAIMER: I still don't own Super Paper Mario.**

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The long trek through the barrens eventually brought Luigi to a patch of white nothingness, which in turn led to a marsh with long and spindly flora. The water was filthy to the point of being mud; it made navigation that much more terrible. He continued moving out of necessity and fear as the events he had endured thus far began to sink in. All times prior, he had been too overwhelmed by fight or flight response to consider what had happened in such a short while, and the mucking about he was doing provided enough time to actually think.

All he wanted at this point was someplace calm to collect his thoughts and evaluate how horrible everything had become since he hid away. Unfortunately, the building he found did not provide that sort of calm.

The Pure Heart silently hummed as Luigi got closer to an old mansion. The sight brought back memories he'd feel better off forgetting as he recollected the number of stories he read growing up that seemed to depict every feasible thing that could go wrong in a withered building like the one before him. There was another Pure Heart inside the building, however, and he needed it. Whatever was going on inside would likely get worse if he put it off, so Luigi held fast what little courage he had to delve inside.

A rusted plaque with "Merlee's Mansion" engraved on it was bolted next to the front door. Luigi creaked open the entrance after reading the plaque to see a bloodied lobby. The red trailed deeper into the mansion like the bodies had been dragged. Violently dragged. Luigi held his breath as he stepped over the blood and headed further inside. Most of the exits had collapsed upon themselves, leaving him in darkness and relying on his hearing. The carpeting on the hardwood floor muffled the sound of his footsteps, decreasing the risk of being hear, but increasing the risk of being snuck up on.

The sounds of a crying child echoed from somewhere. Luigi paused and held his breath again.

Nothing. He continued on. Perhaps if he was lucky he would find 'Merlee', or whoever else owned the mansion.

He saw a light ahead with the following room being lobby-like; flight of stairs led to a floor above on Luigi's left, while the right had a flight going down. The overhang of the upper floor had black masses hanging from underneath, unmoving. One of the masses was cracked open with the remains of a horned, dog-like monstrosity spilling out.

Luigi looked away, feeling a wave of nausea hit him. The masses were obviously holding food for a nearby monster. He heard a canine-sounding growl emit from the foot of the right staircase. Scared, Luigi scaled the left flight of stairs to distance himself. The child's cries echoed once more. It seemed to come from the same level he was on.

The chances of the source being a monster or a normal child were evenly split, but Luigi had to take the chance.

"Hello?" Luigi whimpered. The cries became louder. Luigi quietly followed the source to a locked door. A large enough hole was broken through for Luigi to spot a young girl cradling herself on the floor of a bedroom. He couldn't see her face, but could tell that the girl was in bad condition by her black tattered dress and the messy display of her pigtails. Luigi turned the doorknob, finding it to be quite loose, and entered the room. Oddly, the opposite side of the door was missing a doorknob, and the hole in the door was too high up for the girl to reach through and open the door from the other side; someone had gone to great lengths to trap this child. But why?

Luigi tip-toed to the child until he was a couple feet away from the green-skinned girl.

"Are you hurt?" He asked, crouching down.

The crying stopped. The girl's back was still turned to him. Her head cracked as it shifted to stare halfway at the plumber, filling him with dread and regret as a black pit looking him in the eyes. The child's green skin looked rough and metallic, a trail of rust moving from the eye to the bottom of the cheek while an uncanny smile formed from her mouth.

A couple of teardrops hit the carpet before she stared at him fully, a hand shifting from around her legs to the floor. A mixture of rust and blood began to shed in the place of tears as each individual hair on the child's head frantically spasmed like millions of spider legs. The sounds of playful laughter echoed the room.

Luigi fell backwards. Panically crawling. Clambering up. Running.

The child gave chase with thousands more legs skittering in the place of normal, human-esc legs. Blindly, Luigi jumped from down a floor. Pain coursing through his legs. Struggling back up, he found it painful to run, enough to make his eyesight blur.

Each step meant more pain and less vision. He blindly ran for cover. His hearing, though muffled could still hear the corrupted chasing behind. He stumbled into a new room, the floor sounding like tile or stone instead of hardwood. He tripped, falling back on the ground. Luigi inched near the wall, his vision clearing up. He slide into a closet or pantry, pushing the door closed as he crawled to the back of the confined room and passed out from the pain.

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 **Will Luigi wake up in the darkness of the pantry, or the darkness of a spider's silk? Who knows! Goodbyyyyyye~**


	13. Recall

**And now, the thrilling continuation from last chapter! I'll reply to Reviews at the end of the chapter this time because I'm quite excited.**

 **DISCLAIMER: Super Paper Mario is owned by Nintendo.**

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Stirring in the darkness, Luigi could still feel the pain in his legs. He wasn't sure what he injured to make it hurt so much, but the best he could do without medical expertise was walk it off and hope for the best.

What little light shone inside from the open pantry door was enough for Luigi to get his bearings on the situation. The supplies were mostly old, perishable food that he didn't dare to touch, but the non perishable foods had seen better days as well in their containers.

He pushed himself off the ground to stand, wobbling a bit as a jolt went through his legs. He would leave the food and go back outside to find the Pure Heart, this time more carefully. Limping to the door, a horrid though came to Luigi when he remembered...he had closed the pantry door before passing out, yet it was open when he woke.

Something wet dripped on Luigi's head when the realization hit him. He shook uncontrollably as his vision slowly panned to above him. The child hung from the ceiling with her arms, much larger and spider-like, even more legs wriggled from the edges of her eyes and mouth. The body slouched as it dangled, clicking and snarling like something from the vacuum of space.

Luigi bolted as best as he could. The creature dropped down from her perch to give chase once more. He struggled to run as the pain in his legs hit him over and over. He leapt behind a couch the next room over. His hand briefly brushed over something cylindrical and metallic as he hid behind the couch. Grabbing for the object half-underneath the couch, he found a flashlight.

The sound of a thousand spindly legs alerted Luigi to the creatures presence, and he instinctually flashed the light into the corrupted's eyes. It screeched, as if blinded, and Luigi used this weakness to slip back into the kitchen and towards the lobby area from before.

The Pure Heart hummed loudly near the stairs, surprising Luigi. He remembered the growling from before, he _knew_ there was probably another corrupted downstairs, and he knew that the Pure Heart was why he came here. If he could find it, he could flee the mansion without any guilt or regret. The familiar sound of spider legs against wood echoed from where he came from. Maybe if he was lucky, the two corrupted would lose interest in him in favor of fighting each other.

He hobbled down the stairs with the child quickly following behind him. The further he went, the more he began to realize the lower floor was a horrible trap. A maze meant to confuse whomever was unfortunate to enter. He began to notice Pure Heart humming louder in certain directions, so he followed. He could always hear the sound of spider legs behind him. No matter how far he went, she was a room behind him.

The skittering sound seemed to stop around the same time the humming did: at the foot of a staircase. The room was otherwise empty with only two doors, a lot of space, and an upwards flight of stairs. The center of the room had a single stone, shaped like a heart, and humming very quietly.

Luigi hurriedly picked up the stone and placed it in his bag, but not before hearing the sound of footsteps behind him. He turned around. A pair of gumless teeth greeted him with a monstrous roar.

"Mercy!" Luigi shouted, falling down again.

The creature was the size of a bull, but with sharp teeth and a three striped horns akin to those of a rhino. A white, empty eye surrounded by a gross red gunk pierced him when the it turned its head. Six long, scrawny legs held up the beast's segmented body while the remains of an article of cloth and a sickly yellow tail dragged on the floor.

It huffed at Luigi while a black ooze secreted from its mouth.

He swung at the beast in fear, the teeth attacked to his hammer scratching the creature's face and aggravating it without any intention.

It rammed towards him as an attack, but missed almost every time. If it got too close, he swung again, each time with more force. Somewhere during the fight, Luigi managed to hide underneath the staircase, which the corrupted could not slip under. The underside was cramped and filled with boxes, but the plumber managed to fit.

As the corrupted attempted to collapse the staircase, a box of photos caught Luigi's eye at just the right time. It depicted a shaymen woman in sunset colors, surrounded by a group of small, hound-like creatures, and a larger one.

The stairs shook.

The connection between features on both the woman and on the corrupted began to match up. The glasses. The hair. The colors.

More shaking.

He picked up the picture and flipped it over. The back read, clear as day, "Merlee + pets".

"Merlee!" Luigi exclaimed.

It stopped. The corrupted ceased its attack on the wooden steps.

Confused, Luigi stepped out from his hiding place. The corrupted stared at the floor, whimpering. It looked up at him apologetically, it's eyes somehow seemed gentle.

"Merlee?" Luigi asked, approaching.

It, no, _she_ nodded. She nuzzled him when he got close enough. The noises she made sounded like an attempt to speak, but nothing comprehensible came through, though it was obvious she was apologizing for her behavior.

Luigi wrapped his arms around the corrupted woman, hugging her.

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 **Hey look, a chapter that didn't end in murder or trauma.**

 **Review time!**

 **GreenCAT: Ouch indeed.**

 **NormanWhitesmith: You come back here right now, this story isn't over 'til I SAY it's over.**

 **Guest 1: Luigi has yet to break old habits, but he willing...eventually. Also yeah, HORRIBLE time to pass out.**

 **Space Dimentio: In Luigi's defense, he was in a lot of pain. I've nearly passed out from stubbing my little toe, so I understand his pain...obviously with less spiders involved.**

 **The Toad Soldier: Even though you've just read chapter one and probably won't see this for a while, I can assure Luigu will be safe for now.**

 **Guest 2: Glad you like the story!**


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